Hellcat Squadran: Fall from Grace
The Silence: Almut was inspecting her single bladed, green lightsaber when suddenly the intercom beeped and their pilot spoke up. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking please return to your seats and buckle up, we are almost there." This was followed by a cacophony of clicks as the members of the investigation team strapped in. The dark haired woman put her blade back on her belt, before closing the belt before her chest. The other members of the team consisted solely of the new Spartan-IV classes that graduated a two years ago. All of them were considered veteran experts even though their young age. They were heading to check out a planet called, Plexi. It was the latest planet to have dropped out of contact in the last few weeks. All in all about ten planets from the same cluster. While at first it had been dismissed as probably a comm black out, people were worried now and as such had selected an elite Spartan team, and enlisted the help of a capable Jedi Master to investigate the incidents. Most people suspected pirates or mercs, but Almut couldn't help but feel uneasy about this. If it were only such petty thugs, why send in such a well equipped and trained team? No something was definitely wrong here, foremost that the Coalition Council had no official knowledge of the mission, that this was something the intelligence services had cooked up and she had managed to get roped in, great. Their pelican suddenly took a sharp turn to the left, and they could feel the shock wave of an explosion rocked the ship for a second time. The group inside could do nothing by sway back and worth in their seats some of them hitting the backs of their heads on the bulkhead, grunting in pain. Almut stayed perfectly still thanks to the Force, even though that was hard as the pilot had started taking emergency evasive maneuvers. The ship rocked back and forth, twisted from left to right until finally, almost an act of mercy a single projectile pierced the left wing and sent the ship in a downward spiral. "I can't...keep her steady!" screamed the pilot moments before impact. The pelicans skidded over the ground, creating a path in the uneven rock of the surface. At this moment, Almut's safety harness broke and sent her flying towards the aft of the ship. Using the Force, the Jedi managed to stop herself from crashing against it, but still hit the bulkhead with enough force to bruise her left shoulder, ignoring the pain, she looked around, as most of the team tried to get free of their harnesses and checking on those who did not move. "One fatality." commented Commander Florian, the leader of the Spartans, and indicated one of his soldiers. Part of the bulkhead had embedded itself in the man's skull, killing him instantly. "Make that two!" came a call from the Spartan who was checking the cockpit, the pilot had been strangled in his seat by his safety harness. To Almut's left a Spartan had wrenched open the emergency exit, and climbed out of it. "What in the name..." they heard him gasp over the comm. Prompting the rest of the squad to leave the downed dropship as well. What they saw after leaving the dropship was indescribable. From their rough coordinates they should have crashed into the central plaza of the world's capital, a place of merchants guarded by some of the best the military had to offer. But there was nothing, or rather nothing that resembled the plaza even slightly. Everything was in ruins, scorch marks covered the half collapsed buildings, and burned or savaged corpses were strewn across the street. The stench of blood, burned flesh and death was all permeating. Florian ordered the squad to move out and check for signs of survivors or the aggressors, knowing full well that there wouldn't be any who'd have survived this...massacre. In the mean time, Almut walked around, becoming one with the Force, she could feel the fear, the pain, the suffering, but something burned even more powerful in this place, eclipsing even the massive scar left by so much death. She could barely breath as it hit her, the feeling of such intense and iridescent hatred, burning as brightly as the sun in the sky. At that she retracted her senses, unable to bear so much vile at once and looked up to see her steps had directed her towards the Castle of Glory. A place built in memory to all the soldiers who had died in any of the countless conflicts this galaxy had suffered, on the first glance it appeared just as ransacked as the other buildings, but then the Jedi saw something on the top of the fifty meter high gates and jumped up there. "Commander...you need to see this." she whispered into the comm, as she waited for the Spartans to reach her. There atop the gate, where once the Coalition flag had hung, proudly fluttering in the wind, a different banner stood. It was off incredible value, so much was clear from the first glance. The fabric and the whole patterns had been hand made in countless hours of artifice. It seemed to depict some form of battle, but Almut didn't know the language which had been stitched in long, ornate, golden letters onto the cloth. "Burn it." ordered Florian and one of his men, readied his flame thrower. In that instance, Almut thanked the Force for everything, as she felt the warning seconds before. "Down!" she bellowed, as her green lightsaber sprang to her hand, igniting and she deflected a needle thin red beam of energy which had been fired from atop the next level of the castle. She grunted in pain, as the beam forced her to stagger a little, as she deflected it into one of the reinforced titanium walls, to the groups left, instantly vaporizing it. "Take cover!" roared the commander, as his team duck behind the debris that cluttered the platform they stood on and returned fire, their assault rifles a loud bark, answering the low hiss of the enemy's weapons. The black haired woman's lightsaber slashed through the air, again and again, blocking the thin red beams, rolling with each slash, to avoid herself from being forced back by the energy from the blast. Now she could finally see the enemy. The troopers wore strange dark green garbs under their protective vests, which seemed more than capable of blocking the 7.92mm bullets fired from the Spartans rifles. However once hit, the enemies did go to the ground, but got up again, angrier if anything. However once the Spartans shifted their aim towards the arm pits, necks and helmet lenses, the enemy stayed down, permanently. All in all the firefight lasted little over three minutes. "Report!" bellowed the commander as he fed a new magazine into his rifle. "We are done two men!" came the response. Almut looked around at their casualties, one of the Spartans was missing everything above his shoulders, so she guessed he had taken a hit at the base of his throat. The other one was missing his entire mid-section and the smoking top and bottom halves were looking almost comically, the hands still gripping the soldier's battle rifle. Tearing her gaze away from their dead, Almut jumped up to the next platform to inspect the enemy. They were human, all of them. But their technology and appearance matched no known nation in the galaxies. She inspected the dead for a bit longer, when her Force sense saved her for the second time this day, one of the enemies, bleeding profoundly, raised his rifle at her and was about to fire. However she was a lot quicker than the man could perceive and in a single motion, she had sliced the head of the trooper and he collapsed in a heap at her feet. "Area secure, now." sighed Almut into the comm, as she replaced her blade on her belt. Truth: On the Run: Trust: A New Son: Battle of Legends: Reconciliation: